70 duster: updating, and a no-dough pro-touring makeover
so, weve got a BUNCH of money to add to the budget. i spent 1397.50 on a perfect fit AC system from classic auto air. opted for the shorty sanden sd7 compressor, and the correct brackets from bouchillon to mate it up to my victor jr intake. bought the perfect fit, even though i wasnt too keen on some of the ways they did things. wouldnt have really saved any money to just buy the various components i need, and not the rest. well, would have saved about 50 bucks. id rather have the extra parts.
so it arrived thursday evening late. i did get my premanant promotion this week, and have been putting in a ton of hours learning and figuring out my new job duties. so i didnt even get to look at the boxes until i was loading them into the bed of my truck at 6:30 friday night. took them over to the shop wher i opened them up and took inventory to make sure i had everything i ordered. i did.
i forgot my camera, so no pictures of friday night.
first impressions were that the kit was VERY well packaged. custom made cardboard spacers, dividers, individually wrapped packages for various parts of the install, etc. i also learned that there had been some running design changes since the directions were made. so they arent the best instructions in the world. leave a good bit to guessing and figuring things out on your own.
started the install friday night. kinda. got my radiator drained, pulled my glovebox liner, passengers seat, and heater box assembley. got to looking, and found some things that mandfe me scratch my head in amazement. like the fact that other than the dynamat and factory cardboard insulation, i had done nothing with the frewall, cowl, and kick panels. this makes no sense to me whatsoever of why i didnt do jute and insulation on these areas. really no idea.
so i spent the remainder of friday night doin the firewall and cowl from the passengers kick to the clutch/brake pedal box in foil backed jute. add 20 for a roll of that. used some leftover 3m adhesive, so were good with that price. i also shot the chrome foil with some semi-gloss black paint so it wouldnt show through.
saturday morning, i planned to sleep in. woke up at 7am. dang it.
went down to the shop, and started working on the istall side of things. got my control head modified after some head sctratching and unjamming my pop rivit tool. the directions were not clear in this area, but i figured it out. also cleaned, tightened, lubed, etc all the controls. one tip: attach the wiring to the fan switch before re-install. will make life a LOT easier later.
then, went to put the underdash assembly in place. the directions call for you to bolt in in from the engine bay side through a pair of nuts on the box. then you cover those bolts with a plastic cover that is retained with self tapping sheet metal screws. i hated that idea. just looked cheap and tacky to me. also, they tell you to run the heater hose valve cable and compressor clutch wire out through the origonal heater core tube holes. again, looked cheap and tacky.
this is the picture from their website:
instead, i decided to recreate the factory style a bit more. used the lupplied body plugs in my prigonal heater core trim, and reinstalled that on the firewall. them made a pair of studs coming from the underdash assembly that more or less mimicked the origonal studs through the firewall. put a pair of bolts through the lower two blower motor holes. drilled the plastic plate in 5 places. 4 for the "studs" through the firewall, and one for the heater valve cable. also trimmed the plastic plate to match the origonal blower motor reinforcement plate.
came out pretty slick.
when i went to hook up the heater hoses, i realized that they were too short for how i wanted/needed to run them. went up to the parts store, and spent 42 on a pair of gates 5/8 hoses with molded in 90 degree bends. a little cutting here and there, bent the heater hose bracket into a new shape, and viola. i like how their routed now.
all ive got left on the interior side is to finish running the compressor wire through the bulkhead, and install my dash vents/hoses/seat. also need to install the new glovebox liner that i modified to fit my shift light controller and ipod jack.
so, grand total as of today: 4159.14
wow, this is getting expensive.
but im having a ball.
more next weekend when i work on the inderhood some.
Michael
so, weve got a BUNCH of money to add to the budget. i spent 1397.50 on a perfect fit AC system from classic auto air. opted for the shorty sanden sd7 compressor, and the correct brackets from bouchillon to mate it up to my victor jr intake. bought the perfect fit, even though i wasnt too keen on some of the ways they did things. wouldnt have really saved any money to just buy the various components i need, and not the rest. well, would have saved about 50 bucks. id rather have the extra parts.
so it arrived thursday evening late. i did get my premanant promotion this week, and have been putting in a ton of hours learning and figuring out my new job duties. so i didnt even get to look at the boxes until i was loading them into the bed of my truck at 6:30 friday night. took them over to the shop wher i opened them up and took inventory to make sure i had everything i ordered. i did.
i forgot my camera, so no pictures of friday night.
first impressions were that the kit was VERY well packaged. custom made cardboard spacers, dividers, individually wrapped packages for various parts of the install, etc. i also learned that there had been some running design changes since the directions were made. so they arent the best instructions in the world. leave a good bit to guessing and figuring things out on your own.
started the install friday night. kinda. got my radiator drained, pulled my glovebox liner, passengers seat, and heater box assembley. got to looking, and found some things that mandfe me scratch my head in amazement. like the fact that other than the dynamat and factory cardboard insulation, i had done nothing with the frewall, cowl, and kick panels. this makes no sense to me whatsoever of why i didnt do jute and insulation on these areas. really no idea.
so i spent the remainder of friday night doin the firewall and cowl from the passengers kick to the clutch/brake pedal box in foil backed jute. add 20 for a roll of that. used some leftover 3m adhesive, so were good with that price. i also shot the chrome foil with some semi-gloss black paint so it wouldnt show through.
saturday morning, i planned to sleep in. woke up at 7am. dang it.
went down to the shop, and started working on the istall side of things. got my control head modified after some head sctratching and unjamming my pop rivit tool. the directions were not clear in this area, but i figured it out. also cleaned, tightened, lubed, etc all the controls. one tip: attach the wiring to the fan switch before re-install. will make life a LOT easier later.
then, went to put the underdash assembly in place. the directions call for you to bolt in in from the engine bay side through a pair of nuts on the box. then you cover those bolts with a plastic cover that is retained with self tapping sheet metal screws. i hated that idea. just looked cheap and tacky to me. also, they tell you to run the heater hose valve cable and compressor clutch wire out through the origonal heater core tube holes. again, looked cheap and tacky.
this is the picture from their website:
instead, i decided to recreate the factory style a bit more. used the lupplied body plugs in my prigonal heater core trim, and reinstalled that on the firewall. them made a pair of studs coming from the underdash assembly that more or less mimicked the origonal studs through the firewall. put a pair of bolts through the lower two blower motor holes. drilled the plastic plate in 5 places. 4 for the "studs" through the firewall, and one for the heater valve cable. also trimmed the plastic plate to match the origonal blower motor reinforcement plate.
came out pretty slick.
when i went to hook up the heater hoses, i realized that they were too short for how i wanted/needed to run them. went up to the parts store, and spent 42 on a pair of gates 5/8 hoses with molded in 90 degree bends. a little cutting here and there, bent the heater hose bracket into a new shape, and viola. i like how their routed now.
all ive got left on the interior side is to finish running the compressor wire through the bulkhead, and install my dash vents/hoses/seat. also need to install the new glovebox liner that i modified to fit my shift light controller and ipod jack.
so, grand total as of today: 4159.14
wow, this is getting expensive.
but im having a ball.
more next weekend when i work on the inderhood some.
Michael